PRD is located in the Guangdong province and is the low-lying area of the Pearl River estuary where the Pearl River drains into the South China Sea.
Economic hotspots in the PRD include Shunde, Shenzhen, Dongguan, Zhongshan, Zhuhai and Guangzhou.
Shenzhen is responsible for the production of 70% of the world’s photocopiers and 80% of the world’s artifical Christmas trees. For instance, the Japanese company Ricoh, makes most of its photocopiers in Shenzhen. In 2002, the port of Shenzhen overtook Rotterdam and Los Angeles to become the world’s sixth largest container terminal. It is also the global purchasing centre for Kingfisher and Wal-Mart, which scoured $10 billion of goods from China in 2002 in all.
Guangzhou houses the export-only Honda car plant and nearly 70 of the top 500 transnational corporations are represented in the Guangzhou Development Zone.
Despite the strong economic growth in the PRD, there are also certain concerns over its future prosperity. There are increasing environmental pollution, in particular, water and air quality. The entire delta is heavily polluted and the worst problems are experienced in Guangzhou. In addition, with intense competition between different urban areas to attract industrial development and real estate development, there had been little concern over the environmental aspects and the loss of agricultural lands as a result of such developments.
